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Governor Patrick, AG Coakley poised to take swift action in unauthorized CORI release to Jessica Van Sack and Boston Herald.

By Christopher King

Okay. I told you on 26 December 2009 about the fact that Jessica Van Sack, the Boston Herald, Channel 7 and other media have left themselves open for a Defamation lawsuit by Joanna Miranova after they accused her of being "bagged" for "having sex" with prison activist and inmate Darrell Jones.

Strange Bedfellows:

There is more to this case than a mere Civil Suit -- I know because I have read several documents from Boston City Hall staff to DOC upper management. In any event, should such a suit be filed, it is not designed to address the "more" piece because that responsibility rests with Commonwealth Governor Deval Patrick and AG (and Senate Hopeful) Martha Coakley. The Civil Suit would most likely be against the Herald and Jessica Van Sack, and I don't exactly see them trying to implead the Commonwealth as a necessary party if you catch my drift, he-heh can't bite the hand that feeds you. They will take this one for the Team, so to speak.

Fortunately a little birdy tells me that Governor Patrick is about to take swift and decisive action here because Community Affairs Director Ron Bell told him all about the case, and he has promoted Mary Beth Heffernan to his cabinet as Secretary of the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS). He no doubt made this appointment because Ms. Heffernan has the sort of direct experience required to help clean up the Massachusetts Correctional System:

After all, Ms. Herrernan has first hand knowledge of this situation as noted in this 29 April, 2009 email between Ms. Heffernan and Ms. Marinova, and I am told she has been poised to take action but was waiting for her formal appointment to the Governor's cabinet, which happened at the close of the year. She wrote:

"Hi, I apologize for not responding sooner. Absolutely, I would be more than happy to receive any information regarding the DOC that you feel would be helpful...."

Therefore whatever purported Bad Blood is going on between Governor Patrick's appointee Harold Clarke (related ACLU request for information) and Commissioner James Bender (related litigation here) needs to get sorted, pronto, so that the Public can find out what really happened here -- and so that appropriate punishment be meted out to all of those who broke the Law in divulging this CORI information to the media, again see Globe Newspaper Co. v. District Attorney for Middle Dist., 439 Mass. 374, 788 NE2d 513 (2003).

Divide and Conquer:

Of the nine (9) men involved in the reform project, only four (4) remain together at Old Colony. Interesting.

Here's the rub:

They are always conducting inquiries and issuing reports (The Harshbarger -- you know him, the former AG -- Report 2004) (Future Search 2009) & (Boston Foundation 2009) a ton of lip service -- some of it well-intentioned, but when somebody does something about it they catch Defamation (Marinova and Jones) or retaliation, like former Jones and Commissioner Kathleen Dennehy, a 30-year veteran. She had a videotape of a cop kicking a prisoner in the face, she fired the guy and the DOC did nothing to support her position and he was resinstated. She stood up to the Union and wrote a letter to Governor Patrick imploring him inter alia, to get truly independent real investigation into abuses like this. Look how far we?ve come!

Addendum on Joanna Marinova's Potential Civil Claims:

Her neighbors are about to write Affidavits that Channel 7 walked up to them, unsolicited, and said they wanted to interview her because she had sex with an inmate. I've seen her paperwork and without getting into that publicly, I am 99% certain she lost valuable career opportunities and opportunities to help the community because of this. Similarly, I will not divulge the health consequences that she may have proximately occasioned because of this fiasco. Stay tuned.

Full post as published by Chris King's 1st Amendment Page on January 04, 2010 (boomark / email).